Valentine's
by Izzyd03
Summary: When Josh makes a surprise visit on Valentine's day, what happens?


**This is my first ever piece of writing on this site, so I'd love some feedback. I love this show and ship and feel they need more fanfic about them. Also, there will be some references to some "Ski Lodge" spoilers. So, um, here it is.**

 **(One last thing. This episode will reference episodes "My Baby Valentine" and "Resurrection" and a landmark birthday is like 16, 18 or 21. A birthday that you make a bigger deal out of.)**

It was Valentine's day. The gang was in their senior year at Abigail Adams High School and so far the day was like any other. They went to school then decided to head to the Matthew's apartment to hang out while Auggie was having a sleepover at Ava's. Riley and Lucas were planned to go out for something special that night as were Smakle and Farkle which left Zay and Maya. Zay had nothing really going on in the romance department, but with Maya it was, well, complicated. She had gotten over Lucas, but there was still someone stuck in her head. A certain Joshua Matthews. She'd had a giant crush on him since she'd seen him at Christmas so very long ago. They'd come to some sort of an understanding that one night at the ski lodge, but not much had happened since. That's why when he knocked on the Matthew's door that day after school, it caught everyone by surprise.

"Uncle Josh? What are you doing here?" Riley asked. She'd been the one to open the door for the man in question, who was dressed rather fancily in a nice dress shirt, tie and black jeans with the addition of loafers and, obviously, a beanie, who was holding a very beautiful arrangement of pink and red roses.

"Well, I'm here to deliver these to your very beautiful friend over there." At his words, Maya blushed a shade of red that envied the one of the roses. Josh made his way over and handed the flowers to her in the most over the top bow. Chuckling, a still blushing Maya took the roses.

"Well thank you, but I don't think that's a good enough reason to come over." Before he could protest, Cory and Topanga walked into the room.

"My brotha!"

"My brotha!"

The men continued to hug each other while Topanga chose a more common greeting.

"It's nice to see you Josh."

"You too Topanga."

"Now," Cory said, "if I may ask, what are you doing here?"

"He brought Maya flowers!" interjected Riley. At her words, Cory's face turned to one of a questioning nature while his wife went the opposite route with one of pure joy.

"Oh he did, did he?" the woman asked.

"He did! Now Cory, would you please tell him that that's not a good enough reason to take the trip over?" Maya asked impatiently. It would seem that she was totally annoyed at the gesture, but Riley could see that Maya was struggling not to start smiling bigger than anyone had ever seen. Josh just rolled his eyes at the question.

"She does have a point Josh. Shouldn't you be off partying with your friends? I mean, surely you'll want to spend today with them." Cory said. He was very curious as to why his little brother would want to come over instead of spending his birthday with his friends.

"Well, what if I said that I actually wanted to spend my birthday with my family?"

"I'd call you on it," said Topanga, "because all of us are going to a special dinner with you on Saturday night."

From the couch, Zay cleared his throat. "While I would love to stay here for this, I think I'd better get going."

"Us too," Farkle said grabbing Smakle's hand and turning toward Riley and Lucas. "We don't want to miss our reservations for today." And with that, the couples, plus Zay, left the apartment.

"That's this weekend. Maybe I want to spend my actual birthday with my family as well. And, before you bring it up again, I have made birthday plans with my friends for this Friday," Josh stated with a smirk. That caused Maya to break the act and smile at him, thankfully she was watching from the side and he didn't see, though the same couldn't be said about Topanga.

"Uh…you know…um…"

While Cory floundered for a response, Maya wandered into the kitchen to grab a vase for the beautiful bouquet she was holding. After searching the cabinets she finally found something that would work and filled it with water. She placed the roses in the vase and managed to set it on the table as Cory finally thought of something to say.

"Well, I guess all of those celebrations are justified. I mean, Lord knows how much you have to celebrate, even on non-landmark birthdays." He glanced over at Topanga and did a double take when he saw her frantic expression. Josh's eyes were as wide as saucers as he made eye contact with the teen behind Cory.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Maya asked Josh. He just kept staring at her, not knowing how she would react to the information that would inevitably be revealed in the next few minutes. Cory's face changed to one of realization then immediately to one of fright as he sheepishly turned to his glaring wife.

"Oops?"

After sitting Maya on the couch next to Josh, Topanga started talking.

"Let's start from the beginning. It was Valentines day 1999, and Morgan and I were throwing Amy a baby shower. The boys were over at the apartment Eric shared with his friends when it happened. We'd just started opening the gifts when Amy went into labor."

"Wait a minute, why were you throwing a baby shower so, you know, close to the end?" Maya asked.

"We didn't." Cory explained. "Josh wasn't due for another month and a half. Our mom was rushed to the hospital and had an emergency C-section. Everything seemed fine."

"Until it wasn't." Topanga continued. "He wasn't breathing correctly so they took him to the NICU. He wasn't responding to the medication immediately and was in there for a few agonizingly long days." All the blood left Maya's face as she realized how easily she could have lost him. She slowly turned to look at him and her hands went up to her mouth, tears threatening to fall. Seeing her face, he started speaking.

"It's Ok! You know my middle name, Gabriel?" She nodded. "Do you know why my parents chose that name?" She shook her head. "It means "he who God protects", which is exactly what he did. He protected me and I survived. I think that they knew that, somehow, I was going to get better, and that's why they decided to name me Joshua Gabriel."

Maya threw her arms around him and buried her head in his neck. Her sobs shook his body. He was shocked. He had never seen Maya cry. She had always been this strong warrior. Seeing her in such a state of vulnerability was very interesting to him. He pulled her closer and just held her. Cory and Topanga took that as their cue to leave.

How long they stayed there, he will never know. When she pulled out of the hug, he longed to hold her again.

"You Ok?" Josh asked. She put her head on his shoulder and sighed.

"Yeah. Sorry, it's just, I never knew how easily you could have died. It just, shocked me."

"Hey." He grabbed her face and looked straight into her eyes. "I'm here. I didn't die and I don't plan on anytime soon." She searched his face then moved in so that they were only inches apart.

"Long game?" she asked. That comment caught him off guard, but not as much as what came next.

"Yes." Before the word was out of his mouth, her lips came crashing down on his. He didn't pull away.

When Riley came home later that night, she opened the door to reveal a sleeping Maya cuddled up to a sleeping Josh. She smiled at the scene before pulling out her phone. What? she needed something to tease them about. The problem? She didn't turn off the flash.

Josh jolted awake while Maya stirred in her sleep. He quickly came to his senses and made sure Maya was fine before looking up at Riley.

"I can explain!" he whispered hurriedly.

"That's not what I'm worried about." Riley replied in a hushed tone. "I'm just wondering how worried Andrew is about you." Josh franticly pulled out his phone and sent a text to his dorm mate telling him that he's staying at his brothers, but not before checking the time.

"Well dear niece, I'm wondering why you though that you could come back at 12:30 on a school night and not get caught by your dear parents." Now it was Riley's turn to be scared.

"I'd like to know that as well," a voice in the shadows said. Topanga walked over to join them in the lamp light and shot them both questioning glances.

"Um, how long have you been there?" asked Josh, worried about what she may have seen.

"Don't worry, I gave you two some alone time." She gave Josh a wink and laughed as he hid his face in Maya's hair.

"Mom, I promise I meant to be here earlier. We just were hanging out in the park and lost track of time." Topanga just laughed and pulled Riley into a hug.

"Sweetie, stop rambling. Your father and I will deal with you in the morning." And with that, she walked out, beckoning Riley to join her and they both went into their respective rooms. Now, all of the talking had woken Maya. The drowsy girl looked up at Josh and opened her mouth to talk.

"Shh." Josh said, kissing her on the head. "Just go back to sleep." She didn't need telling twice. The two cuddled up and drifted off the sleep once again, but not before Josh whispered, "Happy Valentine's Day."

 **Again, this is the first thing I've ever done on this site and you're opinions are very important to me. Thank you for reading this!**


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